LGBT

Court Rules Transgender Bathroom Bans Can Be Challenged Without Education Department Guidance

Written by SK Ashby

A federal district court judge in Virginia has ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm, the transgender student who sued the Gloucester County School District for prohibiting him from using the boys restroom at school.

The judge ruled that Grimm has standing to challenge the school's ban under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act which bars discrimination based on sex.

U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk rejected a bid by the Gloucester County School Board to dismiss the civil rights lawsuit filed by student Gavin Grimm.

The judge said Grimm has valid claims under a federal law, called Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, that bars discrimination on the basis of sex in education as well as the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

If it feels like you've seen this movie before, that's because you have.

Grimm's case has already been elevated to the Supreme Court level once before, but the court remanded the case back to lower courts after Trump's Education Department eliminated guidance that says Title IX applies to gender identity.

The case is now slowly moving its way back to the Supreme Court, again, and there's no reason to think the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C. will not rule in Grimm's favor. Again.

The Fourth Circuit previously ruled that transgender bathroom bans violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That doesn't change just because Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has decided that words have no meaning.